Envelopes have previously been fed from the stack of envelopes by feeding the lowermost envelope in the stack. However, the prior drive systems have required a controllable clutch mechanism or a bi-directional motor so that it has been necessary to rotate the motor in reverse for a predetermined distance to unlatch a master gear clutch.
With this prior drive system, it has not been possible to continue cycling until the lowermost of the envelopes in the stack has been fed if the envelope is not fed during the first attempt. Instead, the prior drive systems have required the reversal of the motor to start another cycle even if there has been no successful feeding of the lowermost envelope.